There’s a really great United sale for travel between Newark and several cities in Europe starting at under $400. Travel is permitted on some other Star Alliance airlines as well.

You can fly from New York to Munich, Amsterdam, Brussels, and Hamburg at least from November through mid-December to get these deals.

The ‘standard price’ for the current sale on United is $461 roundtrip between Newark and Amsterdam this fall. That’s a great deal of course. But you can actually bring it lower.

However airfare metasearch site Momondo will help you find even better pricing.

For instance, Newark – Amsterdam is actually available for $393 roundtrip.

Just use this Newark – Amsterdam search and change the dates.

New York JFK – Brussels comes up at $434:

Newark – Hamburg comes in at $435:

And so does Newark – Munich:

Brussels and Munich are Star Alliance hub cities, of course, and Amsterdam is a SkyTeam hub. So you can use these as jumping off points by air to elsewhere in Europe (or travel by train).

While a non-elite MileagePlus member crediting United flights to the revenue-based MileagePlus program will only earn about 1500 miles (5 miles per dollar on the cost of the ticket excluding taxes), nearly all United fares earn 100% of flown miles when crediting to Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer (.pdf). That means you earn over 7,000 Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer miles for the trip. Note that mileage earning for each partner is different and you’ll want to consult the KrisFlyer earning chart for the airline you’re flying.

Beer garden restaurant outside Munich, copyrightkzenon / 123RF Stock Photo

While Singapore miles do expire after 3 years (not 3 years of inactivity), you can top off a KrisFlyer miles account with transfers from American Express, Chase, Citi, and Starwood.

(HT: AirfareSpot)